The Future Role of the Vehicle Designer

The vehicle design department at the Royal College of Art hosted the second in a series of five lectures looking at the future of the profession last week. Moving on from the previous week's topic of sustainability, this debate explored the future roles and responsibilities of the vehicle designer.

Head of department Dale Harrow began by posing the question "Is it time to rethink – do we still need the car?" Although still relevant, Harrow's ultimate answer to this was that the profession was about to see marked change, with the end to an era where "designers are locked behind closed doors in studios". Skills in "strategy, conceptual understanding and communication" would be increasingly valued as the auto world shifted focus from one concerned with "how to" to a future where the question became "what to...?".

Pratap Bose of Tata Motors used the Indian company's own recent history to illustrate some of the new type of thinking Harrow had outlined. Bose talked about the Nano, a product born of "find the gap" thinking – seeing an opportunity that has been ignored, or deemed unprofitable by existing players. Finding the gap was just one of the three key challenges he saw facing the future vehicle designer – the others being "fueling the passion", and "the challenge of geography".

Leading neatly on from this point, RCA PhD student and fashion designer, Louise Kiesling, stressed the role the web could play in reducing the need for designers to constantly travel the globe. Being at every trade fair and major show was now much less necessary, when designers can harvest trend and market information from behind the computer screen.

Yet the digital age was also creating problems, she suggested – relating the concerns of Tier 1 and 2 suppliers – that designers in the automotive world were becoming increasingly detached from the material craftsmanship and processes of the car industry.

Kenny Schachter, an art dealer and commissioner, provided an interesting counterpoint from outside of the industry. Having commissioned the two Z.Cars by Zaha Hadid Architects, Schachter challenged the industry's "lowest common denominator designs", suggesting there was space for the profession to take a leaf from the art and furniture world. The best designers could put their names to highly exclusive, limited run, road-worthy concept cars – that he believed a market of art and design collectors were ready and wiling to pay millions of pounds each for, and would pave the way for the industry to "be more progressive".

This diverse group of speakers provided no overall consensus on the critical skills the designer of the future would need, or roles they would play. Yet all were in agreement that the job of the car designer will become ever-complex, and that their jobs' roles look likely to change more in the coming decade, than the previous hundred years that the industry has seen.

Related Article:
"Where is the sustainable vehicle design?" – Debate at the Royal College of Art

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